Hey folks. Ive not been about here in an age as ive basically not been spending any time near a computer. Im looking for some help to get a newer GPU for my DFI Lanparty and was loath to ask over in OcUK ... spit. Im well out of the loop now and have no idea what or where to look.
My rig is an ageing DFI NF4 Lanparty Ultra-D Motherboard (Socket 939 & PCI-E),
AMD Opteron 146 (Venus) @ 2ghz, <<< can overclock if needed and I remember how!
ATI X800 ViVo Graphics 256mb DDR3 (ID 4439 / Core R423),
Western Digital 74GB "Raptor" 10,000RPM SATA/150 8MB Cache,
2gb Corsair DDR,
Hiper HPU-3S525 525W 12v Low Noise PSU
~all being cooled on a XSPC X2O Water-Cooling Ki with roof mounted Passive Radiator and ThermalTake AquaBay M2
Im looking to upgrade the GPU to something modern in the hope it will give it a final lease of life and play games, i.e. Napoleon: Total War near full settings. What GPU can I get to run on it? Is everyone still using PCI-E? Should I be looking at other bottle necks too? Is the WD Raptor still a great drive? Would I be better just getting a new rig? I really have no idea ... even after googling about ...
Whats the budget?
on that CPU youve pretty much got the entire bottleneck in one place!
Hey Beaker,
Im looking at £100 max for the GPU. Any more and I may as well be looking at a new rig and porting the new GPU to it.
I also looking at getting a new CPU but think im right in thinking its not worth it?
Youve got all the extra bits there fine. TBH I would be more concerned about a new Board and CPU if I was you. If the budget is tight then an AM2+/AM3 motherboard with DDR2 RAM and a Dual Core would be doable I think. Though it does mena retaining your existing Graphics or using an on-board for a while!
Edit : i fyou do just want a GPU upgrade then a 5670 is probably the way to go.
I wouldnt normally pimp my wares like this, but I have a nice card (http://www.tekforum.co.uk/posts/list/16576.page) that would do you well for cheapies in association with a mobo/cpu/mem upgrade as Beaker is suggesting. Ive not played Napoleon: Total War so dont know how beefing it is but Im guessing this should be up to the task?
Cheers all - all food for though. Clockd 0Ne just sent a PM.
Received & replied my good fellow.
One thing I will say about my card, check there is good clearance on your motherboard for the PCIe slot! Its 23cm long from the backplate and 4cm tall on the top of the PCB, so check that that area square is clear on your mobo and it will be fine.
Quote from: ERUHey Beaker,
Im looking at £100 max for the GPU. Any more and I may as well be looking at a new rig and porting the new GPU to it.
I also looking at getting a new CPU but think im right in thinking its not worth it?
Not worth buying a new CPU, with £100 you could think of getting a low end dual core and mobo, although adding memory would cost you a little more. An E5400 (2.7ghz Wolfdale) would cost you about £50 and a suitable DDR2 Gigabyte mobo about £35. Cheap memory should cost ~£30-40 for 2GB totalling £125 max.
This should run most modern games adequately.